food for lovers. of food.

i’m feeling refreshed.

Hello there, faithful readers. Yes, I took the month of September off from blogging. I was feeling rather uninspired and I was barely cooking (do salads comprised of beans, taco seasoning, lettuce, nooch, and hot sauce count?). Consequently, I’ve been feeling like crap! It is true what they tell you, kids! Food is medicine. And when you eat like shit, you feel like shit. So I’ve had a bit of a revelation. I even joined the Y so I could get some exercise and not feel as gross. (I got up at 7 and swam laps this morning! Word!) I’ve been cooking a little more. And, in preparation for VeganMofo (yes, I am going to try to participate…), I decided it might be nice to clean out my food porn from the past month. You can be the judge of my poor eating habit, if you so choose.

i literally ate this for breakfast today.

Well, a miniature version. This is my favorite easy breakfast (or snack) lately. Ezekiel bread with a schmear of almond butter and some of my homemade peach butter. Dudes. This is amazing. I actually bothered to ripen a nectarine in a paper bag at some point, apparently, and that’s what’s in the background.

yes, i am a child.

No, if I were really emulating child me, those would be chocolate chips, not raisins. And that would be peanut butter, not almond. Anywho, another nice little snack. I really prefer almond butter to peanut. Peanut butter is a little gross, in my opinion. My favorite is cashew, but I hoard it in the back of my fridge for special occasions because it’s expensive. Frankly, I hoard the almond butter as well. I really need to start making my own butters…I’d probably save a ton of money. But I’d probably also gain a million pounds and need to swim 3 times as many laps, so I’ll skip that.

my mom rules.

I had a birthday. My mom still makes my birthday cake every year. Our traditional family recipe is incidentally vegan, so she just had to learn a new frosting for me once I went vegan. And no, children, there is nothing sad about a 28-year-old who still has her mom make her a birthday cake. And bring it to her. Across the state. From 3 hours away. Ahem.

It was really great with some vanilla So Delicious. Also, this is what I ate for breakfast for the following week. What? (My parents also got me this awesome macro lens for my camera. Can you tell the difference?)

falafel addiction.

Ha. Haha. I had forgotten about my mid-September falafel obsession. I ate falafel for, like, 2 weeks straight in various forms. This was actually the crappiest of the falafel I ate. I didn’t make it. I bought it from a Middle Eastern grocery, thinking they would know what was up, but it just tasted greasy and gross. Oh well. The point of this picture is to show you that green stuff. That? That’s cucumber hummus. Yep.

best use of cucumbers. period.

I’ve kind of grown to hate cucumbers. They’re watery and blah. But I always end up having some around in the summer because people give them to me. This time, though, instead of letting them grow into a science experiment in my produce drawer, I remembered seeing some recipe from over at Fat Free Vegan for cucumber hummus. I did not, however, remember exactly what the recipe was. But I went with the general idea and just threw some cucumbers, chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, dill, and a teensy bit of tahini into the food processor and it came out perfect. I actually sort of hesitate to call this hummus (which I think Susan mentioned as well). It’s more like a dip. But, my friends. It is amazing on Triscuits. I know cucumber season is over and this is of no use to you right now, probably. But remember it for next year. Or buy some out of season cucumbers. Whatever suits you.

oh, how interesting.

What an astonishingly boring photograph of a brothy veggie soup. I was feeling under the weather one day, so I whipped this up in about half an hour. Just leeks, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes, and some israeli couscous in veggie broth. It was delicious, albeit simple.

This is the lovely Becca holding a bowl of some Mexican-themed millet we concocted at some point. It was fresh and tasty. And super fast.

another scramble.

I’m one of those vegans who could eat tofu scramble every day. It’s just so easy to make and it tastes so damned good. This, I believe, is a spot on rendering of the scramble in the cajun cookzine I tested for ages ago. It has lots of unexpected stuff in it, like cornstarch and soymilk and oregano. Sounds gross, tastes amazing.

this was actually really good.

Yeah, I had forgotten about this, too. This is some Thai food I made. I let the tofu and mushrooms simmer in coconut milk for about 45 minutes and it made them so ridiculously delicious. Unluckily for all of us, I don’t remember what else went in here. A lot of curry, I’m sure. Ginger and probably some kaffir lime leaves. Red peppers, peas. Oh, I remember now that i cooked the rice with lime as well. This was a really tart Thai dish. I wish I had more of it now.

a failed attempt.

At the Middle Eastern grocery I mentioned, they sell these zataar bread things. I thought, hey, I could buy some zataar and some pitas and do that myself! Well…wrong. I mean, this didn’t taste bad, but it was really dry, so I was obviously missing something. That’s an asian pear cut up in the back.

triscuit should pay me.

They’re really getting a lot of press from me today. Anyway, I made this roasted tomatillo salsa and canned it. It’s pretty damned good, considering I’d never cooked with tomatillos before. It made a huge batch, too. See?

Not having to buy salsa recently has ruled. I was planning on giving some away as Christmas presents, but I’m not sure it’s going to last that long.

Ok then! That was a super quick post with lots of pictures, yes? On my camera I have not one, but two amazing things to show you, but that will have to wait until next time.

Fun WordPress spellcheck stuff: hummus, tahini, and tomatillo are not recognized. Way to be ethnic, WordPress.

i have a turkish cookbook that might be up your alley. it isn’t vegan (nowhere near, actually), but there is a huge vegetable section and most of the stuff in general is easily veganized. there’s an amaaaazing recipe for rice with mint, dill, and peas. mm!

i really need to get off my lazy ass and can some shiz. seriously. i totally pretend i’m all intimidated, but really, it’s just laziness. oh, and hello Jessica! glad you’re back, chica – i took a bit of a break myself, although mine was a bit more than a month. i feel kinda bad about it, but i lost my mojo – i think i’ve got it back though, fo ‘sho. w00t! i’m all jealousfaced of your macro lens, and the chocolate cake of deliciousness. (sidenote – did you say homemade peach butter?! mmmmmmmmm!) i wish my momma would make me a cake. she used to make vegan cookies, but ever since the gluten-free stuff came around she’s too intimidated to make me glutenless yummies. i can’t blame her though – i screw up A LOT of gluten-free baking (a lot = 80%, yeah it blows). i’m workin’ on it though. anywhooooo…. yay for delicious mexi-millet, triscuits a’plenty, rock’n scrambles and thai foodz, oh yeah – and cucumber hummus. mmmmm! i need to make some, and i need to get on a falafel kick as well. while i do love me some peanut butter, i’m usually only good for about a tbsp and then i don’t care for it much more. i hide the almond butter from myself because i have absolutely zero almond butter control. ah ha ha! ants on a log – i’m sitting here all squeeeee like ’cause i bought some celery (a rare occurance as we don’t use it much) for some eggless ‘fu salad and i’ve got a ton o’ stalks leftover, and would you believe i just picked up more organic raisins yesterday at the market. hot damn! i think i know what i’m having for dinner. yay! thanks for all the awesome food porn to drool over, and i’m mucho excitedfaced about mofo’n as well. huzzah!

i’ve been canning my salsa in prep for the winter (and it rocks when you don’t have to shell out $4 for good salsa). i’m loving the green tomatillo salsa – must. make. soon.

and i don’t know about you, but i can only eat like one or two cucumbers a year before i realize i’m just not a fan. but then i try it again the next year. this year i canned some to see if i’d like ’em better that way. not holding my breath. 🙂

My neighbor gives me a jar of tomatillo salsa every summer and it is just the BEST!

Also, I can only hope that when my daughters are 28 they will still want me to bake them a cake and bring it to them no matter how far away they are. I just know your Mom is thrilled to do this for you!